it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together
by chalantness
Summary: A holiday meme. Drabble #10: Dick/Zatanna - prompt: sleigh
1. guidelines

**it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together  
**_a holiday meme_

I made this meme with Secret Santa in mind, so it's inspired off of that. As always, **everything in bold must be followed** for me to answer your prompt (:

Duration:  
- **until November 1 for you guys to leave prompts**  
- until December 1 for me to fill them  
Prompting: leave as a review or as a PM to my account

**Note: The filled entries will be posted as additional "chapters" to this post.**

_Details_

- Fills will be drabble-length (usually less than or around 1,000 words but no more than 1,500).  
**- **I won't start posting filled prompts until November 2.

_About the Prompt_

- **Pick at least one number between 1 and 38**, but I highly encourage leaving multiple numbers.  
- **Give holiday-themed prompt(s)**: word, picture, activity, song lyrics, etc.  
- If you leave more than one number, you should probably leave more than one prompt. But that's only a suggestion.  
- **If there are any ships you are completely against, be sure to tell me** so that if you happen to pick their number, I can choose one of your alternatives. Other than that, I can't guarantee what ships I'll be writing about for you.

_Ships_

I'll cheat a little and give this information to you guys in case you want to use it:  
- my _Young Justice_ ships –between characters that have made an appearance on the show – are #1-29  
- my crossover ships – between characters that have made an appearance on the show and comic characters that haven't appeared yet – are #30-38


	2. drabble 1

**Pairing:** #15 - WallyArtemis  
**Rating:** T  
**Word C****ount:** 900+  
**Prompt:** going to get a Christmas tree  
**For:** an anon

**Note:** I know I said November 2, but since nobody had any more prompts to add, I decided I might as well start posting!

... ...

Wally's been dropping hints since _September_ that he wants a real Christmas tree this year.

He asks for one every year, and every year Artemis gives him a reason not to. Wally will normally pout, but he'll get over it in a day or two and get all excited about decorating the fake one they keep in their garage closet. And it's not like she wouldn't love a real one, but she'd rather not have it shedding pine needles all over her gifts, thank you very much.

But this year their kids are older and honestly, Artemis _wants_ them to have the experience of a real tree. She's had one, once, because her parents were miraculously getting along one year. She and Jade got to pick it out and decorate it themselves.

She _loved _it. She wants their kids to love it, too.

So when Wally brought it up literally _right after_ Thanksgiving (it was a little passed midnight), her mind was already made up. But it didn't hurt that the kids were with his parents so they could go Black Friday shopping, and it was the first time since they were born that she and Wally didn't have to be quiet.

"Can we get a real tree this year?" he'd asked as he kissed his way up her body, lying himself beside her again.

"Fine," she'd said. "But _you're_ taking care of it, and if I see so much as _one_ pine needle on my carpet before we go to bed, I'm throwing it out."

And that's how she got roped into picking out a Christmas tree.

The kids have a school holiday today, and Wally made her take the day off with him so that the whole family can be there to find the perfect one. Because apparently picking out a tree requires a day unto itself.

And yes, Artemis looks over her shoulder so she can see the exact moment Jayden and Ellie's eyes light up when Wally turns the corner onto the Christmas tree lot. She only wishes she'd caught it on camera or something, but whatever. It's not like she could forget something like that.

"No running away, okay?" Wally's asking Ellie as they're unbuckling them from their car seats. Ellie likes to bolt whenever she gets the chance. Wally's usually able to grab her before she makes it very far, but they're both really hoping she kicks the habit before her genetics sink in. Jayden was right around her age when he started speeding off.

"Okay, Daddy," Ellie giggles, stretching her arms out for Wally to carry her.

Artemis holds Jayden's hand as he jumps from the car and onto the sidewalk. She shuts the door and kneels down, pulling his little beanie into place. "You'll make sure your sister doesn't run off, right?" she asks him.

Jayden gives her a dimpled smile that makes him look so much like Wally. "You bet, Mom."

She laughs a little and gives him a high-five.

He holds onto her hand with Wally holding onto her other, Ellie at his hip, as they cross the street, and then Wally puts Ellie down on the sidewalk once they're standing at the front of the lot. She already tries to dash inside, but then Jayden calls out, "Ellie, wait!" and catches up to her, holding onto her hand and looking over his shoulder at their parents.

"We're right behind you," Wally tells him, and he grins and turns back to Ellie, beginning to say something to his sister as they're (thankfully) walking now.

"They're so adorable," Artemis says, because it's true.

Wally chuckles and nods as he threads their fingers together. "It's cute how she listens to him. She listens to him better than she listens to us," he points out.

"I hope they'll always stay this close. It'll especially come in handy when they're older and going through their terrible teenage years." Wally frowns, probably at the idea of his daughter becoming a rebellious teenager who'll have boys other than her brother and father in her life. "Wally—"

"Why'd you have to bring that up?" he _pouts_, and she just laughs at him, kissing his lips. Then he flashes a smile like he was never upset. "Come on, let's go look at the trees!"

She laughs even harder. Seriously, half of the time it's like she has _three_ kids.

And honestly, she's not surprised that he makes them look at _every single tree_ like they're pricing a diamond or something, because apparently the perfect tree is symmetrical from all sides and tall enough so that the star touches the ceiling. She expected the kids to get bored and start playing in the snow after the first ten minutes (which they sort of did for a bit when they got distracted by the crunching sound the snow made under their boots), but for the most part, they're totally into everything Wally's saying about each tree.

When they're about to give up on this lot and take a break for lunch, Jayden points out a tree at the very back that they must've missed or something. It's an eight-foot Douglas-fir that looks perfect from all sides, and when Wally holds Ellie up, she's just within reach to put the star on the very top.

"Can we get this one, Daddy?" Ellie asks once he's set her back on the ground. She and Jayden look up at them with these huge eyes.

Wally looks at her, which she doesn't get, because it's pretty obvious that this is _their_ tree.

"This is the one, baby," she tells him.

He grins at her widely, grabs her by her waist and spins them a few times. Their kids are giggling at them, and when Wally sets Artemis back down, he hoists Ellie into his arms as Artemis picks up Jayden. "Let's bring our tree home."


	3. drabble 2

**Pairing:** #7 - Dick/Artemis  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word C****ount:** 800+  
**Prompt:** snowflakes  
**For:** an anon

... ...

Their house smells like chocolate when she gets home from work.

Dick took managed to get the last three weeks of December off (_lucky ass_), which started last week, and every day since then the house has smelt like something out of a bakery because he's always making things with the kids. Yesterday they made gingerbread, and the day before that they made cinnamon rolls.

Today they made chocolate chip cookies, and she finds a whole plate of them sitting on the kitchen table next to a post-it note from Dick saying that he took the kids to the mall to stretch their legs and get more shopping done.

That makes her smile. Dick is totally not one of those parents that avoid taking their kids anywhere because they're afraid that they'll cause a scene. First of all, their kids are awesome and are generally very well-behaved, especially in public. And second of all, their kids respect them so much _because_ they make the effort to go places as a family as often as possible.

That stuff _matters_.

Anyway, Artemis munches on a cookie before going upstairs to change, swapping her pencil skirt for a pair of leggings (what? they're _comfortable_) and her blouse for the chocolate brown cable-knit sweater Dinah bought for Artemis last Christmas that she's totally in love with. It's really, really warm, and she happens to look awesome in it.

And she's just finished boiling water for some hot chocolate when she hears the front door opening and her kids calling for her.

"I'm in here, guys," she calls out, and after a brief pause (no shoes allowed in the house) Jason and Dylan are sliding into the kitchen in their socks like they love to do all over their hardwood floors. "Want hot chocolate?"

"Yes!" they both exclaim, and then Dick adds, "Me, too," as he walks in with Anna at his hip.

"I thought so," Artemis laughs, opening the cupboard to get their mugs. (Dick got one for each of them with their names along the handles. The kids absolutely refuse to drink out of anything else now.) She looks at the paper bag in Jason's hands and asks, "What've you got there, Jaybird?"

"A surprise," he announces.

She arches an eyebrow.

"Why don't you guys get changed first, and we can show her the surprise in the living room?" Dick suggests, and Jason and Dylan nod and disappear up the stairs.

Then Dick smiles at her, leaning in to kiss her and making Anna giggle in her little voice between them. She smiles against his lips, kissing him again before pulling away. "So what's the surprise?" Artemis asks, stirring the hot chocolate powder into each mug.

"It wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you," Dick laughs. Anna giggles even more and he says to her, "Mommy's so silly, huh?" which of course makes her giggle even harder.

She rolls her eyes, smiling, and tells him to put the cookies on the coffee table so they can eat them with their hot chocolate.

The kids make their way back downstairs after she's brought all of their mugs out and sat herself on the couch with Anna on her lap, and Dylan sits beside them with the brown paper bag, digging around a bit before pulling out a box. "This one's yours," she says, handing it to her.

Artemis holds it out of Anna's reach as she pulls the lid off.

Inside is a snowflake ornament with _Mommy_ written in the center in cursiveand the year beneath it. She looks up at Dick, who grins at her and pops a cookie into his mouth. Dylan and Jayden both open their own boxes, revealing snowflakes that are a bit smaller than hers, with _Birdie_ written on Dylan's and _Jaybird_ written on Jason's. Artemis pulls out the last two boxes from the bag, revealing Dick's snowflake (the same size as hers) with _Daddy _across it and Anna's snowflake (the smallest of the five) with _Dove_ in the middle.

Artemis can feel her eyes watering a little. Every year, Dick gets matching presents for the whole family, and they never fail to make her tear up even just a little bit. Their personalized mugs had been from two Christmases ago, and last Christmas he bought them all pendants of birds that matched their nicknames.

"I love them," Artemis says, and Dylan and Jason exchange smiles. "Want to help me put them on the tree?"

"Of course," Jason laughs.

Dick gets up and takes Anna from her lap, and the five of them gather around the tree. The fact that the snowflakes match their silver, white and blue decorations just makes it even more perfect. She knows Dick probably accounted for that, too.

Dylan hooks hers into place, and when Jason tries to place his away (Artemis has no idea why, but this year Dylan was practically obsessed with making sure the ornaments were all spread out), she pulls his hand back. He smiles at his sister, hooking his and Anna's right next to hers, and Dick kisses Artemis's temple when she places theirs right above.


	4. drabble 3

**Pairing:** #2 - Jaime/Cassie  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word C****ount:** 900+  
**Prompt:** hot soup, roaring fire, and lots of cuddling on a cold Christmas Eve  
**For:** Opaul

... ...

When Cassie puts her face in her hands and mumbles, "I'm really sorry about this," all miserably, as if the zeta tubes shutting down had been _her_ fault rather than the blizzard going on outside, he just smiles at her. Honestly, she looks kind of adorable when she's like this.

"I'm pretty sure you didn't have anything to do with this."

"But today's _Christmas Eve_," she reminds. "You should be with your family, not stuck here in the Cave with me."

He frowns. "Hey, don't talk like that," he says, and he knows she can tell he's being serious because she peeks at him over her fingers. "I _wanted _to be here, remember? So you wouldn't have to spend Christmas Eve alone. And now you won't. I'll just try to get a call out to my mom and let her know that I won't be home until later."

She presses her lips together. "Are you sure?"

"I'm starting to think that you just don't want to hang out with me."

He's teasing, of course, but her eyes widen a little as she quickly says, "Of _course_ I like hanging out with you! I just feel _bad_ because you only stayed because of me and now—"

"Now we get to spend more time together," he interrupts with a laugh. She's actually pouting a bit right now because he's obviously finding this amusing while she feels terrible, but it's not his fault that she's being a little ridiculous. "You're not the worst company in the world, you know."

She actually laughs, and he grins at the familiar sound. As adorable as she is when she's pouting or worried, he always likes her best when she's happy.

"Thanks, Jaime," she tells him.

He shrugs his shoulders. "It's not a big deal."

"It is to me," she insists.

He kind of expects her to say more, but she doesn't, and he has no idea why he feels himself blushing as he looks back at her. She's smiling at him from underneath her long lashes, but it's not a smile he's really seen on her before. It seems softer, maybe even vulnerable, and somehow he just _knows_ it's a part of her that she doesn't just hand out to anybody.

"I'm going to, uh, try and call my house," he says lamely, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Okay," she says, back to her usual cheerful tone, and gets up from the couch. "I'm going to see if there's something in the kitchen to keep us warm."

She smiles at him again before heading for the kitchen, and finds himself staring a bit longer than necessary as she walks away, making him blush even more and disappear into the hallway before she can turn around and notice.

His signal is surprisingly fine considering the horrible weather outside, and he doesn't even have to make up a story to tell his mom. Apparently it's snowing hard in his neighborhood, too, and so she tells him to stay put (she thinks he's at a friend's house) until she calls him when the news gives the all-clear. Hopefully the zeta tubes will be back on by then.

His mother sounds kind of sad when she tells him to stay safe and to have a Happy Christmas Eve, and he says, "I will. Love you," because it _does_ kind of suck that he's not with his family tonight, even though he can't do much about it.

When he walks back into the kitchen, he sees Cassie standing at the stove, stirring something in a pot with a wooden spoon. She looks over her shoulder at him and smiles when she hears him come in, and there's a fleeting second where he thinks that she'll definitely be an amazing wife to come home to someday.

(He blushes at that and hopes she doesn't notice, or at least won't point it out.)

"I'm reheating some of the chicken noodle soup that M'gann made before she and Gar left with J'onn," she tells him. "Should we use mugs or bowls?"

He thinks about it for a moment before replying, "Mugs. That way it'll be easier to eat them on the couch." He grins and adds, "Because I was thinking that we could have a _Transformers_ movie marathon since Bart has them all queued up on Netflix."

She flashes a smile. "I like the way you think."

He laughs.

And a few minutes later, he's moved the coffee table aside and pulled the couch closer so that they're in the warmth of the fire he started in the fireplace. He walks down the hallway and pulls out one of the blankets from the dryer in the laundry room, and when he plops himself onto the couch, Cassie walks into the living room with two mugs in hand.

He's about to make room for her, because he sort of sat in the middle of the couch, but she doesn't seem to think twice about it before sitting herself right next to him. She hands him one of the mugs and then uses her free hand to pull the blanket over the both of them, and when he starts the movie, she blinks as if just realizing something.

"Sorry," she says, beginning to pull the blanket off. "I could get mine—"

"I don't mind," he tells her, and she brings the blanket back over herself and gives him that same smile from before. He's decided that it's his favorite smile.

And sometime during the second movie, after they've both finished their refills of chicken noodle soup and set their mugs aside on the coffee table, Cassie curls up against his side and leans her head on his shoulder, making herself comfortable and pulling the blanket over their shoulders.

He doesn't mind this, either.


	5. drabble 4

**Pairing:** #12 - Tim/Stephanie  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word C****ount:** 1,000+  
**Prompt:** ice-skating  
**For:** Insomniatic95

... ...

It's kind of hilarious how captivated everyone is with Cassie and Stephanie.

He can't blame them, though. The girls are just laughing and fooling around in the middle of the ice rink, not even in rhythm or anything with the Christmas soundtrack blasting in the background, but they make it look like they're performing a choreographed routine or something. Just without the glittering costumes.

As Stephanie comes out of her twirl, she braces her hand against Cassie for support. She's laughing as she's pushing her hair out of her face, eyes quickly drifting over the crowd until she finds his. Her smile widens.

"They're something else, aren't they?" Jaime asks beside him, and he sounds as awed as Tim feels.

"Yeah," Tim breathes.

Stephanie says something to Cassie that makes her nod, and then people are parting the way for them as they skate over to the edge and step out of the rink.

He stands from the bench, holding onto her gloved hands when she gets close enough and reaches for him. "Hey," she exhales, still trying to catch her breath from skating. He echoes her with a chuckle and reaches up, brushing his fingers against her skin as he tucks her hair back into her purple beanie. "Why are you guys just sitting out here?"

"We decided to take a break," he tells her. Her cheeks are flushed. He can't help but find it adorable, if not incredibly distracting. "Their hot chocolate is really good."

"Is it?"

She grins and reaches for the cup sitting on the bench, but he grasps her hand again, pulling it away. "I wouldn't, if I were you." She arches an eyebrow. "It's mostly empty and cold probably cold right now," he explains, laughing a little at the face she makes.

"Can you come with me to get a new one, then?"

"Only if you let me pay," he says, which would sound like a weird condition if it wasn't _her_. Barbara is practically drilling some of her beliefs into Stephanie's already stubborn head, and it's not that they're total feminists or anything. They're just really proud when it comes to not having to depend so much on males, let alone when it comes to beating them.

(Barbara _still_ holds it over Dick's head when she finally beat him in chess, which is only really a big deal because Dick never really loses in strategy games.)

Stephanie makes a face, and he kisses the crease that forms between her eyebrows.

That makes her smile. "Okay," she relents, "but just this once. Hey, do you guys want—" she begins, about to ask Jaime and Cassie to join them, only to find that the two are already making their way for the table selling gingerbread cookies. Stephanie laughs, shaking her head in amusement. "Never mind, then."

They sit down after she's gotten her hot chocolate, and she drinks as he glances around.

He has no idea where everyone else is. Well, except for Bruce and Dinah, because he can see where they're sitting on their own bench, drinking coffee and not paying attention to anything else. And Dick and Barbara are at one of the picnic tables with a bunch of little kids around them, sprinkling glitter on each other rather than on the paper snowflakes like they're supposed to. But he basically lost track of everyone else. Even Jaime and Cassie are gone when he tries looking for them at the table that's selling baked goods.

He doesn't really mind it, though, so long as he's with Stephanie. He thinks he should feel a little bad, especially since it's the last day before Christmas Eve that the Team will be together. But it's not like they won't meet up with everyone later or anything, because Megan will be upset if they don't do their Secret Santa exchanges.

Once Stephanie's finished with her hot chocolate and they've dumped it in the nearest trash can, she grasps both of his hands and smiles up at him.

"What?" he asks in amusement, because he knows that look. She totally wants something from him.

"Skate with me," she says.

"Steph," he laughs.

"Please?" She's already tugging him towards the entrance of the rink. "I haven't gotten to skate with you yet."

"I think Cassie would make a better partner. I can't really skate."

"He can jump off of rooftops, but going ice-skating freaks him out," she teases. He chuckles as she steps onto the ice, and he hears some sort of remixed version of that Mariah Carey song that's on every station during the holidays beginning to play from the speakers.

Then she lets go of his hands, gives him a playful smile before skating away, and he laughs and glides into the rink after her. Just as the song's beginning to pick up, he grasps her hand and twirls her around him before scooping her into his arms. She tosses her head back in laughter, and he's only half paying attention to the fact that everyone's watching them now. And he thinks he hears someone – maybe Gar or Bart – call out their names from somewhere else in the rink, but he doesn't bother checking.

He tosses her over his shoulder, turns in time to see her gliding along the ice with one leg lifted, and he skates up to her and hoists her up by her hips. It's not like they choreographed this, so there are times when their blades scuff the ice and he misses catching her hand when probably should've.

But everything's fluid and in rhythm with the song for the most part, and he thinks that the ease with which they move together comes from how in sync they are when they're soaring through the air or kicking butt. It's natural, moving with her. He likes it.

He watches her twirl in the air, landing on one skate with her leg lifted and her arms spread as she glides backwards, and he comes up beside her and grasps her at her waist.

"See? This isn't so bad," she teases, and he laughs and grips her a little tighter as she slides her lips over his, the final chords of the song drowning out in the sound of people cheering.


	6. drabble 5

**Pairing:** #3 - Dick/Zatanna  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word C****ount:** 1,100+  
**Prompt:** Secret Santa  
**For:** SuperboyRules

... ...

"Hey," a voice greets by her ear, and she nearly falls off of the step as she lets out a yelp.

Dick cackles. She usually doesn't scare easily, but it's not like she could've anticipated that he would _literally_ drop by, hanging upside down on the end of his grappling hook as she's standing on the ladder, trying to decorate their ridiculously tall tree. Though she obviously shouldn't have put it passed him to try something like this.

"Jerk," she laughs.

He smirks, adjusting his shades with his free hand. How they stayed on his head, she's not really sure of. Maybe these are special sunglasses that strap on like goggles so his identity stays protected even while he goes around scaring the crap out of people.

And yes, she thinks that's something he'd totally invest in.

"Are you doing anything later?" he asks.

"Megan wants all hands on deck to make a gingerbread mansion after we finish the tree, remember?"

He laughs. "Yeah, I remember. I don't mean today." She looks at him, arches an eyebrow. "I'm going to try and get Black Canary's gift tomorrow and it'd be really awesome if you could come with me."

"Why do you need my help to pick out her gift?" she asks. "I'd think you know her better than I do since you've known her longer."

"Sometimes having a second opinion helps," he tells her, shrugging (which looks a little weird since he's still hanging upside down). Then he grins. "Besides, I'm just trying to look for an excuse to get you to hang out with me. We don't necessarily have to go shopping if you don't want to."

"Oh." She feels her cheeks warm. "I've got plans with Artemis after lunch, but we can go first thing in the morning."

He grins. "Then it's a date."

"Great," she says, and the leans forward to press a kiss to his lips. "Now get down from there and hand me some more ornaments, Spider-Man."

... ...

They end up in The Disney Store because they agreed that none of the places they've gone to so far had anything that seemed perfect enough for Dinah, so they decided to take a break and just browse around in here for fun.

She picks up a Prince Charming and Cinderella snow globe from the shelf, smiles as she tips it carefully and watches the flakes swirl around.

"Is she your favorite Disney princess?" Dick asks as he suddenly appears beside.

"No," she admits.

He grins. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I didn't really take you as the Cinderella type."

She laughs a little, shaking her head. "Nah, I'm not one for being a damsel in distress, though I have a total weakness for fairytales and all of that stuff. It's just that she's always reminded me of my mom because of their names—Sindella, Cinderella." She shrugs her shoulders. "I was even her for Halloween, once. It made my dad cry."

"Yeah?" he asks.

"Yeah," she says. "I think I've been all of the Disney princesses, because Dad would always say I'm his little princess. My mom used to call me that all the time, so I guess my dad wanted to make sure I never lost that even after everything."

She glances at Dick and finds him staring at her. She thinks his expression is thoughtful, but she can't tell with the shades.

"So, which one _is _your favorite?"

"None of them," she laughs. "My favorite Disney princess is Tiger Lily from _Peter Pan_."

"She's Native American princess, right?

She smiles at him widely. "Most people don't even remember her," she says. "And I don't really know why I like her so much. I have almost nothing in common with her. I guess just thought she was exotic and mysterious and I wanted to be like that. Plus, I had the biggest crush on Peter Pan," she adds quickly, almost sounding embarrassed.

"He's the best," Dick agrees. "Why didn't you ever dress up as Tiger Lily?"

"For my dad, I guess." She shrugs a little. "I had a feeling that he thought I would've loved that kind of stuff if my mom had still been around. I didn't really have the heart to tell him that I didn't want to be like those traditional princesses. I think my dad felt like my mom would still be a part of me if I liked them."

"Your mom's going to be a part of you no matter who you become," he tells her. "If my parents were still around, I probably wouldn't be doing what I do. They may not even like that I do it. But that doesn't mean I've abandoned them." His voice is soft as he adds, "Growing up without them doesn't mean I've become a stranger that they wouldn't still love."

She doesn't realize that her eyes had been watering until she blinks and her vision blurs with tears.

He reaches up and wipes some away from the corner of her eye.

"Thank you," she says, and not entirely sure if she means for that or for what he just said.

"You're welcome," he replies. He takes the snow globe from her hand and sets it back on the shelf, grinning. "Let's get out of here."

... ...

They're all in the Cave the day before Christmas Eve for the party, since everyone's going to be separated for the actual holiday and this is probably the last time before New Year's that they're all going to be together.

Megan sits them in the large room around the tree when it's time to open gifts (she made a schedule), and it's kind of funny to see everyone dressed up kind of formally while wearing the Santa Hats and reindeer headbands that Megan had passed out when people started arriving.

They pass out all of the Secret Santa presents first, taking turns going around the room to open them and find out who their Secret Santa was. Some of the gifts make them laugh – like the _Baywatch_ DVD collection from Artemis to Wally or the pedometer from Hal to Barry – but most of the gifts just make everyone emotional (especially Megan, who's kind of just crying through the whole thing) – like the charm bracelet Conner gives Dinah or the ceramic Alice and Cheshire Cat statue that Roy gives Artemis.

When it's her turn, she unties the gold ribbon from around the box and lifts the lid. Inside is a silver tiara with an orange gem in the center, shaped into a flower that she immediately recognizes.

Someone pulls off her reindeer headband, and she laughs a little and feels her eyes watering as she finds Dick smiling down at her. She vaguely registers the voices of their friends around them, but then Dick is sliding the tiara into place and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. He mumbles something against her skin, but she can only make out one word.

_Princess_.


	7. drabble 6

**Pairing:** #29 - Barry/Iris  
**Rating:** T  
**Word C****ount:** 800+  
**Prompt:** shoveling snow  
**For:** an anon

... ...

When he gets off of the phone with his boss (who told him to just take it easy today because the roads are icy and closed off), he walks out of the kitchen to find Iris standing in the hallway and buttoning up her lavender coat. She smiles at him, pulls her beanie over her head as she asks, "Not going in today?"

"Nope," he says, walking over to her and putting his hands on her hips. "Are you?"

She arches an eyebrow. "The roads are closed, remember?"

"Then what's with the outfit?" he asks, reaching up to play with the fuzzy ball atop her head as he adds, "Which you look totally cute in, by the way."

"Thanks," she laughs. She wraps her scarf around her neck, knotting it into a bow. "I'm going to try shoveling out our driveway so we can fit your car in the garage." She steps out of his grasp and reaches for the shovel propped up against the door leading into the garage. "You're welcome to join me after you finish that report you're supposed to send in today."

He frowns. "I totally forgot about that."

"Then you're welcome," she says. "You just need to make the last revision, right? It won't take more than an hour."

He smiles at her, kisses her and mumbles, "What would I do without you?" against her lips. She grins, places a hand against his cheek and kisses him again. "I'll try to finish as soon as possible so I can help you."

"Do whatever you need to do," she tells him, kissing him once last time before heading towards the front door. "I'll be right outside."

He sighs once the door's closed, heads into his office and switches on his laptop before walking into the kitchen. Iris already has a mug of coffee waiting for him on the counter beside a stack of waffles on one plate and sausage links, strips of bacon and a few slices of toast on another. There's a post-it note beside it in her cursive that reads, _A snack while you work to hold you over until brunch_, and there's a heart next to it. He smiles. She's always leaving little post-it notes for him, and he wonders if she knows that he saves every one of them.

Anyway, he takes the food into his office and already finished half of his waffles by the time he pulls up the actual report, because he got distracted with replying to the six consecutive e-mails that Hal left him (don't ask).

And by the time he's made the revisions, read over it twice for fluency and sends it to his boss, it's been a little over half an hour. He checks his e-mail one last time (finds four more e-mails in his inbox – three from Hal and one from Oliver) before shutting off his laptop and walking into the kitchen to rinse his plates and stick them in the dishwasher.

Then he grabs a second shovel from the garage and a jacket from the closet, pulls it on and walks outside. Iris has gotten almost halfway done with the entire driveway, and he feels bad for taking his time and making her do it by herself.

He jogs up behind her, scoops some snow from the ground and tosses it at her back. She makes a startled sound, turns around to face him as she laughs, "_Barry!_" He flashes a smile and gives her an innocent shrug. "You know, tossing the snow back at me while I'm standing _in_ the driveway is counterproductive."

"Woops," he says, walking over to her and reaching for her shovel. "Why don't we take a break?"

She holds the shovel away. "You just got here!"

"Okay, let me rephrase: why don't _you_ take a break, and I'll spend it with you?"

"Or," she says, "How about _I_ take a break while _you_ finish shoveling the other half of the driveway?"

"That wasn't an option."

She tips her head back as she laughs, and he grabs the shovel from her hand while she's distracted. She glares at him playfully as he grins at her. He turns around to set the shovels aside, but then he feels something kick him in the middle of his ass and send him face-first into the pile of snow she must've shoveled there from the driveway.

He pulls himself onto his knees, shakes some of the snow off and flops onto his back. Iris is laughing even harder now, clutching her stomach through her jacket, and he gives a slightly breathless chuckle. "Okay, I guess I deserved that."

"Yes you did," she declares, dropping onto him so that she's straddling his waist, which might've actually hurt if she weighed more than a feather. "But I still love you, anyway."

He laughs a little, rolls them over and kisses her so hard that she lets out this little whimper from the back of her throat that has always, _always_ driven him crazy. "I love you, too," he tells her, and forgets about the driveway and the fact that their neighbors can probably see them when she breathes his name and presses her lips to his once more.


	8. drabble 7

**Pairing:** #30 - Damian/Lian  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word C****ount:** 900+  
**Prompt:** Christmas cookies**  
For:** theotakuprincessofgotham

... ...

He doesn't really know how he got sucked into this.

(Well, no. He knows exactly how he got sucked into this. No matter how hard he tries, he can't refuse her. Whether it's because he's known her for so long and knows better than to say no to her or because he just doesn't _want_ to say no to her, he hasn't quite figured out yet.)

But when Lian asked if he wanted to help her bake cookies for the Christmas party this year, he sort of figured that they'd just be asking Alfred to help and then sort of hang out in the kitchen while the guy bakes (since Alfred refuses to let them eat those pre-made kinds where you just break off the squares and place them out on the tray).

He should've known better.

"How many more do we have to make?" he grumbles, looking around. Literally almost every surface in the kitchen is covered with a plate of cookies – the left half of the kitchen are the ones that are totally finished and the right half are the ones that still need to be decorated.

She looks up from the gingerbread man she's putting M&M eyes on. "The entire Team _and_ League will be at the party."

"You're insane for doing this, you know that, right?"

She shrugs, handing him the plate of finished gingerbread men. Which, she told him, aren't even gingerbread cookies; they're cinnamon and sugar cookies that are shaped and frosted to look like gingerbread men.

She's seriously insane.

There must've made a few hundred cookies already, and judging by the bulky amount of ingredients that she'd asked Alfred (who does _anything_ for her because she loves being in the kitchen so much) to buy, they're probably not even halfway done.

Pretty much every Christmas thing you could think of, she's turned into a cookie – mistletoe, snowmen, reindeer, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, presents, candy cane, snowflakes, Christmas trees, twinkling light bulbs, mittens, stars. They're all made without any cookie cutters, too. He _knows_. She taught him now to make every single silhouette so that he could help her mass produce them. And they're all hand-decorated. He frosted a few dozen, but she makes it look so much better than he does, so eventually he just stopped trying.

He glances at the clock on the oven. Her dad's picking her up in two hours, and since they started baking as soon as she got here this morning, they've pretty much spent their whole day in the kitchen.

He feels like he should be annoyed, or at least exhausted, but strangely, he's not. He spent his whole day trapped with her in the kitchen, doing pretty much everything she told him to without much resistance (well, he complained, but she ignored him every time he did), and he actually had _fun_ the entire time.

"Hey, we should probably start wrapping these up," he tells her. She's piping light blue frosting onto asterisk-shaped cookies to make them look like snowflakes. He frowns. "Hey."

"Okay," she finally replies, still not stopping.

He sighs and walks over to her, snatching the frosting bag from her hand and holding it out of her reach despite her protest. "You need to take a break," he tells her, and she looks like she's about to protest before she meets his eyes and sees that he's being serious.

"Fine," she exhales. "Can you finish this last batch, then? I'll start moving the rest of them into boxes."

"Lian—"

"It'll be mindless work, Damian," she interrupts. "It'll be just like taking a break, just a little more productive."

He rolls his eyes. "You don't even know what it means to take a break."

She blinks. "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know," he shrugs, but she gives him a look. He rolls his eyes again. "You're so… It's just that you get really passionate about everything you try, and there's all this intenseness to you that makes it pretty much impossible for you to _not_ give something your all and make it perfect, or something."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," she says, though she's laughing.

"It's not," he tells her simply. "It's one of the things that I love about you." Her eyes widen a little and he turns away, scowling at himself. Did he really just say that? Damn. "I meant _admire_. It's one of the things I admire about you."

"No, you said _love_," she corrects stubbornly, and he misses the giggle in her voice. "Do you really mean that?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

But she practically runs into him from his side, throwing her arms around him, and he has to brace a hand against the island to keep them upright. "I knew you loved me!"

He feels heat spread across his cheeks. "You're such a pain. Did you know that?"

"But I'm _your_ pain," she laughs. He (unsuccessfully) fights off a smile. "And you probably love how much of a pain I am to you, huh?"

"You're never letting the _love_ thing go, are you?"

"Nope. You love me," she declares, and then says louder, "You _love _me!" He shakes his head, amused. "Damian loves me," she exclaims. He's pretty sure that the exhaustion she feels and amount of sugar she thought he didn't see her eat is probably making her act like this.

Then she tilts her head up, meeting his eyes. "I love you, too, you know," she tells him, and leans up a little to kiss the corner of his lips. "Thank you for helping me today."

This time he doesn't even try to keep from smiling. "Sure thing, Little Red."


	9. drabble 8

**Pairing:** #15 - Wally/Artemis  
**Rating:** PG  
**Word C****ount:** 800+  
**Prompt:** buying an ornament every Christmas Eve**  
For:** Mezzosopranogirl

... ...

The first one was an accident. They were in college and walking back from this really lame party, and they ended up buying this snowy mountain ornament from the 24-hour Walgreens because it reminded them of Mount Justice and they somewhat nostalgic but mostly buzzed from the spiked eggnog.

The second one was sort of a joke for what happened the year before. They were in Happy Harbor this time with everyone and talking about stupid stuff, and Wally ended up buying a mistletoe ornament from Target just so he could kiss her underneath it.

The third one had more meaning. It was the first Christmas in their new home (the apartment they rented before was cozy but not really _theirs_ like this house is) and so at the last possible second _ever_, Wally took her out like, fifteen minutes before the mall was supposed to close and bought an ornament of snowy, decorated townhouses.

The fourth one was one she bought. Wally didn't really get it at first, why she bought an ornament of a couple holding a baby, until he opened her card to him a few minutes after and saw the picture of the positive pregnancy test inside it.

The fifth one was pretty much the same, except this ornament had a couple with two kids instead of one, and it didn't take Wally nearly as long to catch on.

On their sixth Christmas together, they were sitting on the carpet by the tree with Jayden and Elizabeth, when Wally suddenly stood up in a panic. She'd just looked at him like he was crazy, but he'd told her that he'd be back and rushed out the door before she could even get a word out, coming back twenty minutes later with a small paper bag in hand.

"What was that about?" she'd asked.

"We almost forgot," he'd said, sitting back down on the carpet with them.

Artemis watched as he pulled out an ornament of Buzz Lightyear, and Jayden's eyes went as wide as saucers and lit up as bright as their tree. (He'd just watched all three movies the week before and _loved _Buzz Lightyear, because he'd also been developing an obsession with anything that was related to space.)

It was cute and all, and Jayden was totally euphoric, but she didn't really understand what the big deal was about it until Wally said, "We've always gotten an ornament on Christmas Eve for us. I thought this year could be about Jayden, since he's finally old enough to be excited about it."

"You're such a dork, Wally," she'd laughed, wiping tears from her eyes, and Ellie giggled in her lap when she'd leaned over to give him a proper kiss.

And honestly, that's when Artemis realized something coincidental had become a tradition.

They've had this year's ornament planned for a while, because they'd been thinking about this for a few days now and came to the decision together. It was kind of hard for them to keep the secret from the kids, especially since they're both old enough to know about the tradition and so they kept asking what kind of ornament they'd be getting this year. They would just quickly change the subject and that would be that, but still. She doesn't like having to keep anything from her kids.

Anyway, it's almost midnight and she's going through the gifts underneath the tree, piling Jayden and Ellie's beside them so they're somewhat organized when it's time to open them, and Jayden asks, "Where's Daddy?"

"He's in the garage, remember? You heard it open?" She turns away as she smiles, pulling the small gift bag out from underneath the tree. "Do you know what this is?"

"Is it our ornament?" Ellie asks, and Artemis nods. "Can we open it?"

"What about Daddy?"

"Wally," Artemis calls out, handing Ellie the bag. "Why don't you pull it out, sweetie?"

"Okay," she says in her cute little voice, and Jayden scoots closer to his sister to get a better look. The door from the garage opens, but the kids don't even notice it as Ellie removes the tissue paper and tips the bag over carefully, causing the puppy ornament to fall right into her small hand.

And before either of them could ask about the ornament, there's a small bark from down the hallway that grabs their attention. Wally sets the German shepherd puppy onto the floor and it barks happily, tail wagging as it runs towards the kids.

"Is she ours?" Jayden asks excitedly.

"Yeah, buddy," Wally says, ruffling Jayden's hair, and they all laugh when the puppy up licks Ellie's face, making her squeal.

Wally sits down on the carpet beside Artemis and kisses her forehead. "Merry Christmas, babe," he says, and she smiles, kisses him hard while the kids are distracted and then murmurs it back to him against his lips.


	10. drabble 9

**Pairing:** #4 - Dick/Barbara  
**Rating:** T  
**Word C****ount:** 900+  
**Prompt:** spiked eggnog, and I used this picture (media. tumblr. moc/ tumblr_md20htqUK71qhxhiz. jpg) as additional inspiration** - **just switch "moc" to "com" and delete the spaces**  
For:** Insomniatic95

... ...

Her head is _pounding_ when she wakes up, though she honestly doesn't even remember falling asleep, let alone falling asleep in a bed with the blankets drawn over her, her heels kicked off and her hair out of the stupid bun Raquel put it in.

She groans a little and shifts, and then freezes when she realizes that the material against her skin doesn't feel like the same material of the dress she'd had on when they left for the party. _God_, they never should've gone in the first place. She doesn't know how they talked her into it, especially since she didn't even know the person who went to the college. She was a friend of Conner and Mal and Karen's from high school, apparently, but she highly doubts that made it okay for them to crash the Christmas party.

And honestly, the only thing that the party had relating to Christmas was the tacky twinkling lights haphazardly hung around the room and the eggnog they kept passing out to everyone. It was spiked, obviously, and the cliché handiwork of whatever upperclassmen were hosting.

How she still managed to get wasted off of it, she has no idea.

She pushes the covers aside, sitting upright with her legs dangling off the side of the bed, and she sort of has to just sit there for a second. She's wearing her old Gotham Academy shirt (she recognizes the paint stain on the hem) that they accidentally ordered two sizes too big and so she ended up using it as a night shirt for when she slept.

Wait. She's in her own shirt. She glances around the dark room and makes out an alarm clock on the nightstand. It's _her _alarm clock, to be exact. She's in _her_ room.

She shakes her head, and then instantly regrets it. She's just really, really confused right now.

She slips her feet into her fuzzy slippers she always keeps on the floor next to her nightstand and pulls open the door, flinching against the bright light of the hallway. Except, the light's not even coming from the hallway but from downstairs instead. Her vision's a little hazy, but she can tell that it's coming from the living room.

She grips the railing as she heads down the steps, and then she stops walking altogether and puts her hand over her eyes because the light's making her headache worse right now.

"What're you doing up?"

She parts her fingers, trying to look through the gap. There's a blurry figure standing in front of her that won't come into focus. It couldn't be her mom or dad, could it? They're supposed to be out of town for the weekend.

"Barbie?" The voice sounds amused.

And there's only one person she knows that calls her that.

"Dick?" she asks groggily, removing her hand from her face and steadying it against his shoulder. "What are you doing in my house?"

"I brought you home. You were pretty wasted from the eggnog," he explains.

"How are _you_ not drunk?" she whines. He sounds perfectly fine and it's not really _fair_ since she feels like crap.

"I kind of am," he admits with a laugh. "I'm just not as wasted as you, and I was functional enough, so I promised everyone that I'd take you home. Sorry I kind of broke into your house and crashed on your couch," he adds, and she smiles because she _knows_ he has to be at least a little drunk if he's apologizing for something like that.

"Did you change me into this?" she asks, and before he can answer, "Because I kind of love you for that. The dress kept falling and it was uncomfortable and my heels _killed_ my feet and the bobby pins hurt my scalp."

He laughs faintly. "Glad I could be of service, then. Come on. Let's sit on the couch."

He reaches for her hand, gripping it firmly, and walks her down the last few steps. She looks to her left, and her eyes are adjusted enough to the light where she doesn't have to squint against it for right now. It's still kind of hazy, though, so the lights from her Christmas tree are kind of just blurred together.

"Do you want something to eat or drink?" he asks, gently pushing her down on her shoulder until she's sinking into the couch cushions. "Let me get—"

"No," she says, tightening her grip on his hand and tugging him down. He sort of just stands there for a second before moving over her legs (she's propped her feet up on the coffee table), sitting himself beside her. She shifts, kicking her slippers off and tucking her legs underneath her as she leans against his side. "Are you spending the night?" she asks.

"I will if you want me to," he tells her.

"Please?" She tilts her head to look up at him, and his smile is the first thing she's been able to see clearly since she woke up.

"Sure, Barbie," he tells her, leaning down to press a kiss to her temple. As he starts to pull away, she shifts a little, pushes her hands into his hair and slides her lips over his. His eyes lock with hers as he exhales a breath that warms her face, and she closes her eyes and kisses him again. "Hey, Barbie, if this is just some drunk kiss—"

"You could never be just that to me," she tells him, and he makes a noise from the back of his throat, sliding his hands over her hips and pulling her across his lap.

"Neither could you," he breathes, and she kisses him again, sliding her tongue against his lips.

They taste like eggnog.


	11. drabble 10

**Pairing:** #3 - Dick/Zatanna-centric ft. everyone else  
**Rating:** T  
**Word C****ount:** 1,100+  
**Prompt:** sleigh**  
For:** Jaxi the Robin Girl

**Note:** For those that are unfamiliar with the families in my Family 'verse:

- Dick and Zatanna have their daughter Maria  
- Wally and Artemis have their son Jayden (older) and their daughter Ellie  
- Kaldur and Raquel have their son Cory  
- Conner and Megan are expecting triplets - but this particular Christmas is before she even gets pregnant  
- Mal and Karen have their daughter Sienna  
- Bruce and Selina have Damian  
- and of course, Roy and Jade have Lian

... ...

It all started with Megan because she thought it'd be cute for the kids to all match, and then that turned into all of the families taking Christmas pictures together. Like, she already had the photographer booked and everything when she sent the e-mail with all of the details.

So basically they couldn't get out of it.

And it's not that it isn't an awesome idea, but considering the kids can hardly go a few hours without trying to kill each other, he's not so sure if it's a _smart_ idea.

Well, at least Maria looks totally precious in her dress (though she looks precious in _anything_). It's red with a white bow in the back and snowflakes on the skirt, and she's totally giddy when people compliment her and she gets to tell them that she picked it out herself. She's kind of matching with her mother, too, who's wearing a white dress with a sheer snowflake pattern and red heels, and so of course Maria picked out a red tie with white snowflakes for him to wear so the three of them were properly coordinated.

He loves it.

They all show up to Conner and Megan's place separately, too, so she has the photographer take a few pictures of the individual families in front of the fireplace when they start arriving. And since Wally, Artemis and the kids were the last to arrive, they start with the group shots after their family ones are done.

The photographer has the moms and their kids together for a few poses, and then a few poses without the kids, and then the dads take a few with and without the kids, too. Then they have each couple sitting on the carpet between the tree and the fireplace, a few shots with them looking at the camera, a few candid ones, and a few with this sort of veil draped over them so that you only see the silhouette of them kissing (which the kids pretend to gag at). Then their kids sit with them again and take a few shots with fake presents.

He thinks they all look really, really staged except for a few good snaps of the candid ones, but they don't really have time to look at each picture between takes because they only have the photographer for so long. He hopes they turn out alright. Megan will probably cry if they don't.

Then the guy pulls out this huge sleigh from the other room, pushes it in front of the tree and says that it's time for the group shots of just the kids.

There are glances being exchanged around the room when the kids – who were starting to get kind of restless until now – are suddenly really excited again and calling where they get to sit. It's pretty obvious what'll end up happening here, because it's kind of the rule of thumb that if you can climb onto something, you can also be pushed off of it.

"Um," Wally says, because _yeah_.

But the photographer doesn't hear him as he tells the kids where to sit.

Dick hears Zatanna mutter, "Oh, god," somewhere behind him, and he frowns when he realizes why. Maria is sitting right next to Sienna, and he can't remember the last time before they started walking that they put those girls together and it _didn't_ end up in a fight.

When it falls apart, it they see it in slow motion.

Jayden shifts and accidentally bumps into Ellie, who decides that it makes it okay to shove him, so of course he has to shove back and nearly throws her out of the sleigh if Cory hadn't caught her. Then Damian slips Maria some candy he's hiding in his pocket, but when Sienna asks for one, Maria tells Damian not to give it to her. So Sienna kicks her leg and Maria swats at her arm, and when they both make a grab at each other's skirts, Lian and Damian pull them apart while Lian's yelling at Damian that this is his fault.

All the while, the photographer is trying to take pictures and Dick's not sure if they're supposed to walk into the shot to break it up, because it's pretty obvious that this is going to turn into a brawl very soon. It always does.

But after a few more seconds of total chaos, Megan snaps, "Stop!"

And everyone stops.

"I just want everyone to have nice pictures for Christmas," she says, and she's not _crying_, but there are tears in her eyes and she's really, really upset. Conner presses a kiss to her temple, rubs her arm a little. She lets out this sigh. "Why don't you guys get along?"

The kids look at each other, like they're not sure if they're supposed to answer, and Dick smirks because he _totally_ gets what she's doing here. If there's _one_ thing that the kids all have in common, it's that they _love_ Megan. She and Conner don't have kids of their own yet, so she spoils everyone else's kids to death. Obviously she's going to be the favorite.

"Don't you guys like each other?" Megan asks.

"Of course we do," Lian says.

Damian looks at her and she shrugs her shoulder, smiles a little and bumps her hip into his, which makes him smirk. The kids are all sort of smiling like they weren't trying to kill each other a few seconds together, and then when Sienna and Maria start giggling for who knows why, the rest of them start laughing, too.

When they get the pictures back, they're kind of hilarious.

A few of the posed ones ended up being alright, though the rest of them look really _generic_, and several of the candid ones ended up really nice.

But most of them are just funny. Like, between group shots when they didn't realize the photographer had been taking pictures, there are a lot of the kids being lectured or fooling around and not paying attention or something. The best ones, though, are the ones of them trying to slug each other on the sleigh, just because they're the most accurate.

Then there are some really nice ones after the chaos, of all of them laughing together, and it's kind of obvious which ones of the kids that they're going to send out.

His favorite, though, is one of the first ones they took of just him, Zatanna and Maria in front of the fireplace. Zatanna's holding Maria at her hip with him standing on her other side, and she's laughing as he and Maria kiss both of her cheeks at the same time.

And when Zatanna walks into their room to find that photo framed and on the wall, she presses her lips to his and tells him that she loves him as she pushes him onto the bed.


End file.
